New Combo+1st Fish=Good Luck

Hit my local pond last evening with a new Okuma 5' UL Combo I recently bought, and after about 20 casts caught a nice 17" LM on it. I initially tried a Rebel Wee Craw, but then switched to a 3" white Twister Tail on a jig, which is what the LM was caught on. Seems like plastics are the ticket for just about everything right now, according to many OGF threads. It was in this case anyway. The rod has a nice sensitive feel, as I could feel some tap-taps as the jig was falling. Just at sundown, the surface activity started picking up. Had several miss hits on a Hula Popper, but no hook-ups. Anyway, I always consider catching a fish a on any new outfit as Good Luck for that outfit forever.

Darby Rat,
I just tried a twister tail on a jig for the first time the other day. The jig sort of sits up with the twister tail at the bottom. Is that right? I assume you fish it slow? Way to break in the new reel.
stevek

stevek, twister tails (grubs) are just another weapon in you piscatorial weaponry. Hold your common J shaped grub with the J pointing left, just like a normal J. Push jig point (with hook shank facing right) thru grub~1/2 way and bring hook point out. the grub body should be pretty much level on the shank. When done the hook should point up while grub J tail should point down. Hook J opposite grub J. Jigs are probably the most all around versatile lure you can use. Certaintly they aren't for all applications all the time. Jigs can be fished 1.)on the bottom worked slowly, or lift and reel causing the jig to rise and fall periodically 2.) hook a spinner bait wire arm on, and use it as a spinnerbait covering different depths in the water column, 3.) reel in real fast and use it like a spinner, or even faster for topwater buzzbait action 4.) add other plastics (besides just grugs) and fish various structures 5.) add some real meat like live minnies, craws, crawlers, shrimp and fish on the bottom or on the move. 6.) use you imagination and create different uses. The best thing about jigs is, they are CHEAP. IMO you don't need painted jig heads, but that's just me. I don't find much difference between painted and unpainted. Thanks for the congrats on the new reel. Speaking of breaking in new gear, I hit the Big Darby Wed. afternoon, with a new UL rod,(but my old Mitchell 308 reel), and as luck was holding out with me, I caught a 10" SM on the FIRST cast using a Rebel Wee Craw. I put on a live craw I caught, and on the next cast got a nice 9" rockie. That was all for the day as I had to go, but was happy to have caught fish two days in a row on new gear. More good luck. I'm usually not that lucky. Hope some of it holds on.

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